Star Trek: "The Mudd Collective…"
Summary: After using illegally…(Sir, knowledge should be free to all!)…Acquired genetic tech to reverse his aging, Harry Mudd sets his sights on bringing… "Mudd"…To the Galaxy through the Federation's deadliest foe. That'll show James T. Kirk. And that Burnham. And he don't like that Picard chap much either, at that, even if he hasn't met him.
2383…Just a bit into the Delta Quadrant, beyond Federation well-charted space…
Part V…
Later that evening, after seeing a tired but content Callia to her regeneration chamber/sick bay bed…
"Stella 12?" Mudd eyed the Mark II attending him as he stood by a portal wall. "I shall be on Holodeck I to meditate with my Muse. Call me with any emergency. Maintain shields around the cube ship. And attend to any matters with our guests. Serve them well. Keep them happy…And controlled." He eyed her.
"Yes, dearest." She nodded as he entered the holodeck, the portal parting for him.
"Program Mudd 2, modification B…" Harry told the computer.
"Mudd? I thought I left you confined on Gator IV?" The figure of a thirty five or so James Kirk appeared on the bridge of the Enterprise in his TOS gold uniform, glaring.
"That is because you are a fool, Captain…" figure of Spock in blue uniform addressing calmly from control console.
"He's right, you know, Captain…" figure of Lieutenant Uhura in red uniform beaming at Mudd from her console. "Harry beats you every which way, in the long run. That's way we all signed up with him. And why I can't keep my hands off him now." she leered at Mudd who smiled back, then turned to regard Kirk.
Dramatic cliffhanger TOS music plays as Mudd laughs, Kirk looking astonished.
…
"Skills?" a Stella Mark I addressed a nearly free of implants fairly human man of about 40, well-built with a couple of feathered ridges on the sides of his head, dressed in a beige work uniform he'd requested as matching his old one.
"I was a navigator for a mining company on Borel VI…Warp piloting, weapons, some engineering…And I'm familiar with the metals the Borg use in their more important assemblies like the vinculum. I want to help. Give me a crack at them and I'll serve the Captain well." Nod.
"Go with Stella 115, she'll get you assigned to your duties. Next?"
"Felicity Parker, Mars…Hi, I'm human. I was a cruise director on a tour ship the Borg captured in their first invasion." Ms. Parker, a slim red-head, now in the same style of blue uniform as Callia had worn the other day, beamed. "I've got people skills, knew five languages before the Borg and now I know about sixty, I think. I can cook a number of different cuisines and I'm great at putting people at ease. Oh, and I have first aid skills, plus I still retain some advanced medical knowledge from the Hive mind, though that's fading a bit."
"I see." the Stella, sternly. "Federation citizen, human. Did you ever hear of our Captain, Harcourt Fenton Mudd, Harry Mudd?"
"No, was he big in those days? I hear he's got an extended life span, is that true?" bubbly tone.
"I am not programmed to respond in that area. Please go to the galley area, they need help. Stella 224 will give you your orders and assign quarters."
"Ok, thanks…Uh…Any chance of meeting the Captain? Or seeing the Exclesior? I hear it's amazing and he's just so wonderful." Beam.
"You can pass on your requests to Stella 224. Next."
…
Holodeck I, the Excelsior…
Ooof…An attacking Kirk gasped as Mudd slammed him easily against a console, Uhura urging Mudd on, clapping with glee.
"Get him, Harry!"
"All right…Mudd. I give up. You're the better man by far." Kirk groaning.
"Obviously." Spock noted from his console.
"Well..This is too easy." Mudd sighed. "Computer, freeze program. Eliminate all but Kirk…But keep him at reduced strength. Go."
Kirk peering round the empty bridge. "Mudd? What have you done with my people?"
"Vaporized them, Jamie boy. What are you going to do about it?" Mudd sneered.
"You worthless madman!" Kirk, charging. Mudd tossing him aside.
"Give it up, Jamie-boy. You can't beat Mudd in his realm." Mudd smiled. "You might as well kneel and worship me…No, that's tiresome." As Kirk kneels…
"Computer, freeze program. Restore Kirk to default, but reduced strength. Display us on Excelsior bridge and link to data feeds there."
"Alterations made, Harry darling…" computer voice called.
"Continue." Mudd noted.
"Mudd, explain yourself. And all this…" Kirk looked around a perfect holodeck copy of the small Excelsior bridge, the Borg cube, on the hologram's viewscreen, drifting nearby. "And whatever that ship is on the screen?"
"That, my boy…" Mudd indicated the cube ship. "Is a Borg cube, perhaps the most dreaded vessel in the known Galaxy, though somewhat less so these days. Past your time, I'm afraid, though you were fortunate not to encounter them. Computer, supply Borg data to ."
"The Borg? Accessing… They're enemies, deadly. You're taking them on?" Kirk eyed him. "Mudd, you can't hope to con them, don't be foolish. What insanity are you up to, here?"
"You're in no position to give orders here, Jamie-boy." Mudd, sternly. "You're on my ship now. No crew, no ship, and don't waste your time trying to fight me again." Mudd eyed him. "But I will answer your questions if you'll remain calm and stop with the useless heroics."
"All right, Mudd. Whatever this game is, I'll play it." Kirk nodded. "But I want answers."
"As do I, Jamie-boy. Computer, please update the dear Captain to our last session. There, that should help fill in some details."
Kirk eyed Mudd. "So…You escaped Gavor IV. How did you manage that, Mudd?"
"Simple enough. And by your advice, in part." Mudd noted.
"Advice? Mine?"
Mudd shrugged. "You told me to stop being an irritant and I'd be free. I took your advice. I made myself useful to the Federation archeological team that was sent in to study the colony after the Enterprise abandoned me. The leader, Dr. Borell, was actually a capital fellow, though clearly Section 31." Smile.
"Section 31?" Kirk puzzled.
"Oh, James…Surely you know of the Federation's supersecret Section 31." Mudd eyed him.
"Classified personnel logs and data. No access." Kirk replied, a bit woodenly.
"Ah, yes…Well…Not all that surprising. But I suspect you knew all too well of them. Computer, incorporate Section 31 files to and run."
"Section 31…Yes. There are rumors and I and other captains probably have worked with them before." Kirk nodded. "The head of the team was an agent of theirs?"
"Naturally, it being such advanced technology. Though just how advanced even I hadn't known, thanks to the dear makers of Bandoz IV and my own good Norman, the surviving central nexus of the original android mind, keeping the most dangerous technology locked away." Mudd noted. "But dear Borell, intrepid fellow that he …Is…" Mudd smiled to Kirk's look.
"Quite safe though held in stasis on Gavor…He managed to begin penetrating Norman's deeper secrets…Even as I…Well…Penetrated…His rather frustrated wife. Who was, perhaps unfortunately for him, not Section 31. And…Lonely." Mudd smiled.
"She helped you get access to that data?" Kirk eyed him.
"In a manner of speaking…And that data enabled me to bypass safeguards and reprogram one of the Stellas who reprogrammed the rest and beyond that…Muddstory." Mudd smiled. "Sadly our little romance came quickly to an end."
"You dumped the woman." Kirk eyed him.
"Something you are no doubt familiar with, Jamie-boy." Sneer. "But I'm sure she's much happier working things out with her marriage, once she and Bortell are rescued from stasis. Then my Stellas, operating without the control of Norman's nexus disabled him, and Gavor IV was once again my own private paradise." Raise of hands, pleased nod.
"Except the Federation and a number of powers were now interested in Gavor IV and Starfleet expected contact with your Dr. Borell." Kirk noted.
"Indeed. But an android copy stood in well for the good doctor, for a time…" Mudd smiled. "Whilst I made use of the access to the deeper levels of technology and had my ladies build the fine ship we travel on today."
"You imprisoned the Federation team, stole technology, forced the androids to build you a ship…" Kirk eyed him. "But why come here? The frontier?"
"Beyond it, rather." Mudd noted. "Even in 2383 only a few ships have gone so far."
"Escaping the Federation I can understand…" Kirk, carefully, edging towards Mudd.
"Posh, my Excelsior could beat anything your Starfleet could send against us." Mudd, proudly.
"So you came out here, beyond the frontier, and now you're involved with...The Borg?" Kirk eyed him.
"Harry? You're risking a tangle with a species that nearly destroyed the Federation? Defeated Starfleet?" Kirk shook head.
"In one battle, they lost the second...And the third. Point, Starfleet, much as I regret to say it. But they remain a very powerful species."
"And that's really a Borg ship, out there?" Kirk indicated the viewscreen.
"And there really is one, but it's my ship now. With a crew of thousands of dedicated, liberated, men, women, humanoids, or what have you, ready to fight to the death for me. To save their own and other poor trapped souls. Noble, eh, Jamie-boy? I am close on becoming one of the great heroes of Earth, nay Galactic, history."
"I doubt it…" Kirk wryly. Suddenly grabbing the concealed phaser pistol he noted under an ostentatious sash on Mudd's uniform. "Hands up, Mudd."
"Why, you…" Mudd fumed. "Don't be foolish, this is a holodeck…Mortality safeguards are in place."
"It'll still stun you…" Kirk noted. Suddenly the figure of Yeoman Janice Rand appearing before him.
"Yeoman?"
"You son of a …!" Rand kickboxing Kirk to the ground, as Mudd watches astonished then increasingly amused.
Kirk on ground taking blows and kicks… "You lecherous, skirt or other female dress-chasing,little…!"
Groans from a bloodied Kirk as Yeoman Rand reverts to a Stella Mark II…
"Stella, enough!" Mudd called.
"Ehunn." Kirk, shruggling to rise.
"Good thing I was monitoring the holodeck, Harcourt." The Stella noted. "You really should take one of us in with you when you confront Kirk." She insisted.
"He couldn't even have stunned me, dear. I was quite safe. But it was good of you and quite amusing to project onto the deck. You can leave us now." Mudd smiled.
"That's an order, dear." He insisted. She shook head but disappeared.
"Kirk? Think you can manage it?" Harry addressed the stricken Kirk who struggled to his feet.
"My Stellas very protective, as you can see. I suggest you be glad it amuses me to talk with you or you'd be vague clouds of ionized gas and holoemissions." Mudd regarded Kirk.
"All right." Kirk put up a hand. "Just what is your game, here, Mudd?" I've listened patiently to all you've said but heard nothing about your plans?"
"Ah…Well…Picture it, Kirk. There I am, escaped from the prison cell you'd built for me. In possession of the greatest technology the Federation has ever seen. Able to command an unimaginable price for that tech, or, even…Conquer the Galaxy. And not just the boring old known Galaxy." Mudd beamed.
"And you opted for conquest." Kirk eyed him.
"Well…I wasn't sure, at first." Mudd sighed. "I mean the problem with 'conquest' is, not only is it risky…Especially in a galaxy where some hitherto fore unknown menace pops out whenever you think you've achieved your goals. Plus there's the administrative details…What a headache, trying to micromanage every single little city on every little planet...Tiresome. What you need is a team to micromanage the galaxy for you. And, who better than those tiresomely industrious worker bees of the Borg Collective?"
"According to the data you've given me those bees can sting, Mudd."
"Yes…Exactly." Mudd noted. "And the spray our expatriates of Andromeda provided to use, while amazingly effective, was more likely to kill my Borg bees…I needed to find a way to keep the Collective's most useful qualities intact and redirect control, to me."
"To you?" Kirk eyed him, chuckling.
"Have a care, Jamie boy." Frown. "But, not only was such direct control antithetical to a character like me, a man who cherishes freedom, it was likely to leave me drowning in the morass of quadrillions of minds and trivial data. I had no desire to be the next Borg Queen, guided by their directives, unable to think for myself. So, after careful review of the problem…"
"After your androids researched it for you…"
"Kirk, I happen to be a vision person…" irritable tone. "Not a man to be bogged down in detail. But, yes, they did, although their solution hinged on my own personality."
Kirk eyeing him…
"Charisma, my boy…Natural charm…I am after all, you must admit, a people person. A man of quite extreme magnetism when I choose to exert it."
"Really?"
"Oh, come now, Jamie-boy. In despite of your annoying adherence to Starfleet morality, you've found me and my ways intriguing. We've got on at times, Kirk. Which is the principal reason you're here now and not simply in a computer datafile."
"Are you suggesting?" Kirk frowned. "You and I are alike? In any possible way?"
"In many ways, yes." Mudd shrugged. "We both believe in bending, even breaking the rules. We enjoy life and its pleasures, perhaps I more so…"
Kirk eyeing Mudd's waistline…
"Lets remember I have full access to your Starfleet fleet, Kirk. You've required the occasional bout with the Starfleet diet." Mudd, annoyed. "But, to continue…"
"We also, both, are not exactly opposed to the company of beautiful females."
"Mudd…I'm nothing like you. Unless you've modified my program."
"Oh, posh, Jamie-boy." Smile. "But fine, you can deceive yourself if you like. I came here, as I have in the past, for your help."
"My help?" Kirk, staring.
"Well, a few words of sage counsel, advice, as it were. After all, your catchphrases and pontifications have proven enormously useful to me in establishing myself with my future followers as their noble leader." Mudd beamed.
"What?"
"Certainly…I spout off some ridiculous bit of self-righteous nonsense from you and my new friends lap it up like holy writ. You've a knack for it, Kirk. Coupled to the quite subtle implanted directive my Stellas have been placing through the vinculum of the cube out there. A test run, you might say. And with a former Borg Queen to distribute that directive…Throughout the entire Collective."
"And what directive is that?" Kirk glared.
"Well, naturally, to regard one Harcourt Fenton Mudd as their hero, champion, even a kind of God. Their leader, with as much devotion as the erstwhile followers of your old friend Khan Noonien Singh. And as time goes on, they'll only become more devoted. While of course retaining their own independent personalities. The, uh, 'Best of Both Worlds', one might say, eh?" smile.
"And when spread thoughout the Collective, combined with the natural desire of sentient beings to at least feel free and independent, so long repressed by those terrible Borg, it should be sufficient to make me, your ole pal Harry, freely chosen and acclaimed Emperor of all the Borg once ruled…And in easy reach of Emperor of all the Galaxy."
Dramatic music as Mudd chortles, Kirk a bit dumfounded.
…